Arcus Foundation Trans Media Think Session

Despite all the drama that greeted me upon my arrival into New York, I do have some business to attend to before I can go back to observing all the protests going on here over the Garner case non indictment.

I'm here along with several other peeps from New York and across the country to take part in an Arcus Foundation sponsored Trans Media Think Session that kicks off at 8 AM EST and will run until 4 PM.

I already am aware that Cheryl Courtney-Evans, Christina Kahrl, Rebecca Juro, Dr. Kortney Ziegler and Eden Lane are some of the participants here from out of town like moi.  I know that Andy Marra is one of the local participants.

So definitely looking forward to seeing everyone and having a productive day.

As to what happens after that, we'll see.  My flight doesn't leave from NYC until 3:35 PM EST tomorrow.

WTF Staten Island Grand Jury?

What the frack is wrong with the individuals who sat on the grand jury in Staten Island?   What the hell did you not see in the murder by po-po, yes, murder of Eric Garner?

As I was jetting to New York, a grand jury was making the mind blowing decision to not charge Officer Daniel Pantaleo with murder after he applied an illegal choke hold on Garner, and the coroner stated in his report that this was the cause of death

That decision triggered a series of peaceful protests that resulted in the shutdown of the West Side Highway, a die-in at Grand Central Station and other protests that are still happening as I.type this.

So what the hell does it take to get a predominately white grand jury to indict a white cop accused of killing an unarmed Black man?

Does it take videotape?  It didn't sway the grand jurors in this case.  Will it take sweeping changes in police policies and procedures?  Been there, done than, and Black men are still dying.

And Rudy Guiliani, instead of you flapping your loud and wrong lips and saying jacked up racistly insensitive stuff like "Black people need to stop making White police officers shoot them," how about we flip that comment and White officers stop shooting unarmed Black people?

Tell me and Black America what will it take for white people to see that Black lives matter, we are not always suspects, and the po-po's aren't always right?

And what will it take to get white people serving on grand juries and juries to not only indict a white police officer, but convict them for killing an unarmed Black person?.

Moni's In New York Again...

For the first time since 2012 when I was here to do the GLAAD POC Media training.

This is the first time I've ever been to New York close to Christmas even though I flew up here multiple times to hand out with friends during my Air Marshal days.   I just never attempted a trip close to Christmas because of weather concerns and fear of getting bumped.

The reason I'm here in the Big Apple is not to peruse the Christmas decorations, flip the finger at Trump Tower or do some laps around the Rockefeller Center ice rink (yes people, I can ice skate), but for an Arcus Foundation trans media event along with other trans media peeps from around the country.

The Club Quarters hotel I'm staying at is on W. 51st Street in Rockefeller Center, and I'm loving the fact it has complementary wifi in my 26th floor room.

Thanks to Stacey Langley for grabbing me at LGA and taking me for a Texas style meal at Hill Country BBQ.

I also didn't know that while I was breaking bread and  having a pleasant time catching up with Stacey, I'd be here when a major news story was breaking out in terms of a grand jury not indicting the cop involved in the Eric Garner murder which has jumped off protests that are blocking the West Side Highway

Too bad I'm only going to be in it until Friday morning, then I have to bounce back to a much warmer and less volatile for now H-town.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a few hours, but I need to get my behind in bed..

Leaving On A Jet Plane-To New York

I'm about to board a plane at Hobby for another trip to handle some community business, with the destination this time being New York City.   The best part is I have nonstop trips up there and back to Houston.

It's my last trip of 2014 unless something pops up that requires my physical presence outside of Harris County, and looking forward to being back in New York for the first time since I was there in 2012 for the GLAAD POC Media training.

It's basically an in and out trip, with me heading there for an Arcus Foundation event and Trans Media Think Session on Thursday and then returning home Friday to tear into some post flight barbecue when I arrive at Hobby..

And yeah, you know my laptop and WNBA notepad is coming with me so I can tell y'all all about my latest adventure in advocacy.

Looking forward to seeing some New York when I get there on this nonstop bird to LaGuardia

2015 Houston Mayoral Race - The Early Declarees

When 2015 gets here in four weeks, it not only will usher on what promises to be a challenging Texas legislative session, bit it also signals the beginning of the campaign to replace Mayor Annise Parker.

We're expecting a crowded field because Mayor Parker will be term limited, but we have already had two people declare they are running for the mayor's office.

One is longtime Texas state Rep. Sylvester Turner, who lost a bid om a runoff to Bob Lanier to become Houston's first ever African-American mayor back in 1991 and a subsequent 2003 bid to Bill White.

He declared back in February that he was running, and has since made the moves to back up that declaration.  He also gets bonus points from me as a HERO supporter.

Will the third time be the charm for Rep. Turner on November 3, 2015?   We'll see.

One of his challengers will be Ben Hall, who just lost a mayoral bid to Annise Parker in 2013 and is taking another crack at it. 

I'm not a fan of Piney Point Ben Hall because he told me to my face at a October mayoral debate during the latter stages of that 2013 race he not only wasn't in favor of what later became the HERO, but would repeal Executive Order 150 that protects trans people in Houston city employment..

So Hall will probably be the preferred candidate of the HERO Haters, and his first radio ad is already pandering to the Max Miller crowd.

As to the other rumored candidates are Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia,  Councilmembers Stephen Costello, Oliver Pennington and Michael (God Put Me On City Council To Oppose The HERO) Kubosh,  and Jack Christie.    Former congressman Chris Bell is also rumored to be exploring a run for mayor..

Stay tuned to this TransGriot channel to see who becomes the next mayor for my hometown

World AIDS Day 2014 Houston Memorial

I got a chance to spend some quality time with the Gallery Girls, AKA Nikki Araguz Loyd and Meagan Gillett on Monday afternoon and evening.

One of the things that we did besides having a girls afternoon out was also take time to head to Legacy for their World AIDS Day Observance that started at 5 PM.

I was there not only to commemorate the day, but remembers my friends and family members that we have lost since 1981 to AIDS
.
It was hosted by former KHOU-TV anchor Lisa Foronda at Legacy's California St. clinic. Since the weather was a little chilly for H-town, the ceremony was moved to the facility's garage.

State Rep and Houston mayoral candidate Sylvester Turner was in attendance along with Houston city councilmembers Ed Gonzales and Ellen Cohen and representatives from Rep Sheila Jackson Lee's and State senator Rodney Ellis' office.

Proclamations were read commemorating the day read from our city council, state and federal legislators along with the names of many of the people we have lost. 

There were also people from the medical community discussing the progress that we have made toward getting to the goal of zero new HIV/AIDS infections and urging people to get tested.

After a song from Pride Superstar Daniel Rosales, a community candlelight walk commenced to circle the Montrose block the Legacy Clinic occupies before it concluded.

Koko Jones Release Show Tonight

As some of you already know, my sis Koko Jones dropped a new album called Who's That Lady' back on November 18.

Unfortunately I'm going to miss this by at least 48 hours, but later tonight Koko is having a CD release event with her band Soul Spirit from 8-9:30 PM EST at SubCulture.

The location of the venue is 45 Bleecker Street and you can get your advance tickets for it for $15.   Tickets at the door will be $20.

Doors open at 7 PM, so get there early

So go check out some live music from a  girl like us who toured with the Isley Brothers and Whitney Houston, has played with a wide variety of artists across several music genres and has been in the music scene fro four decades.

World AIDS Day 2014

Today is World AIDS Day 2014 in which we remember all the people we have lost due to the epidemic worldwide and take stock of where we are internationally in terms of eradicating it.

While there has been progress over the last thirty years in terms of combating the virus, we still have a long way to go in order to achieve the goal of an AIDS free generation.

The transgender community is one of the groups affected by HIV/AIDS as the 2000 Washington Transgender Needs Assessment first alarmingly brought to our attention.

One of the issues that Trans HIV/AIDS activists and our allies are trying to get rectified is for the CDC and senior level policy makers to separate trans people from the MSM (men having sex with men) statistics so that we can be more accurately tracked and so that funding can be directed at trans populations instead of having our people inflating the MSM numbers so that gay orgs doing the work to fight HIV/AIDS in our community get funding and we don't .

It also causes problems in collecting statistics when you refer to a trans feminine woman in a survey as a 'man having sex with a man'.   That needs to change ASAP. 

I've lost relatives and friends to AIDS, and I like everyone else, including the people infected with HIV and the researchers and doctors working to find a way to cure it, would love to see the goal of an AIDS free generation become a reality.

TransGriot Tour Of Houston TBLG Friendly Churches Continues

One of the things I get a little sick of in the trans and SGL community is people blanket bashing churches. 

While some of them like Grace KKKomunity Church and Second Baptist deserve derision and our community's contempt for their ongoing Bible bashing, do not forget there are not only liberal progressive churches in Houston, but churches that have no problems opening their doors wide to our community, and liberal progressive ministers who see the trans human rights struggle as the next human rights one and want to be on the correct side of history..

And do not forget many of those liberal progressive ministers stood with us during the HERO fight a few months ago and still are.

What I decided to do was to check out the various churches in Houston that are LGBT friendly and check our their services, worship styles, et cetera so that I have some real world knowledge of which ones to recommend to people and newly out people who are looking for a church home.

I checked out Progressive Open Door Community Church (AKA the POD) last weekend for their inaugural  Transgender Outreach service.   This weekend since I now live right down the street from it, I'll be checking out Resurrection MCC's 11 AM service. 

And yes Pastor Lura, I'll be hitting Grace Lutheran Church in the Montrose area before 2014 is history.

If you local TransGriot readers are aware of trans or SGL friendly churches you think I should hit, drop their name, address and time they have their services so I can check them out

As for you peeps at Resurrection MCC, see y'all in a few hours.

Can Y'all Stop Hatin' On Trans Women For The 2014 Holiday Season?

I wrote posts in 2009, 2011 and 2013 asking this question, and in light of the fact we're getting ready to start another holiday season, just thought I'd ask the question one more time.

Can y'all stop hatin' on trans women for the holidays?

I know the TERF's are incapable of doing it because it's programmed into their intolerant of trans women DNA, so no point in even directing this question at them.  

But for the rest of the planet that is capable of love and compassion for their fellow human beings, can y'all refrain for one month from killing or injuring my trans sisters or at the very least, making disparaging transphobic remarks?

For the 2014 holiday season, I would like for not one transperson anywhere in the world to be killed or injured.

For the 2014 holiday season I'd like to not have to read or hear about hate speech or misgendering comments about us coming from friends, frenemies and foes

For the 2014 holiday season, I'd like to not have to see any anti-trans comments from religious leaders.
 
For the 2014 holiday season I'd like to not see a positive story about us on the Net have a comment thread attached to it with an avalanche of hateful, ignorant and transphobic comments.

And as a holiday gift to us, for the 2014 holiday season, can we trans women around the world simply be able to live our daily lives without drama?

Yeah, it's wishful thinking, but I'm going to at least say it so it has a fighting chance of actually happening.

Why You Haven't Seen As Much Writing On The Blog Lately

One of the things about a move in addition to getting familiar with a brand new neighborhood, is also having to reestablish everything that was disrupted prior to you moving.

While I'm getting adjusted to my new Heights area digs and gradually learning where everything I need is located, one thing that got disrupted was my writing schedule.

I'm still working to reestablish regular internet access after discovering to my horror that I have little to no wifi access in much of my apartment.   I have to sit on the porch of my landlord's home to get a solid connection, and with the weather being unseasonably cold the first week I was living here, that limited my writing to taking a ride to the downtown public library location and waiting to get access to the public computers one hour at a time.

I have a wireless router that was given to me as a backup that would solve much of my problem, but have to get the account for the router transferred to moi so I can take over paying for it

There are times when I come up with something in the middle of the night, and instead of typing it out immediately and having it up for you to read in the morning, I now have to jot it down on a notepad and transcribe it..  

That can be problematic on windy days..  

So anyway TransGriot readers, I thank you for your patience while I work hard to solve the access problem.  I want to get back to doing what I love in terms of cranking out quality posts and news about the trans community for your perusal just as much as y'all like hearing what I have to say..

Shut Up Fool Awards-Post Turkey Day 2014 Edition

It's the day after Turkey Day, and some of you are probably at the nearest mall grabbing up stuff on sale or are resting because you had way too much to eat and drink yesterday.

But as you know, it's Friday, and it's time to call out this week's fool, fools or group of fools, that made themselves look like turkeys for Thanksgiving with their ignorance and stupidity for the whole world to see.

So let's get busy!

The special Jive Turkey 2014 Award goes to every retailer who forced their employees to come in for work yesterday just to get a jump on the holiday buying season..   

Honorable mention number one is Rep. Peter King (R-NY) ,who parted his lips to suggest that President Obama invite child killing Ferguson cop Darren Wilson to the White House.

I''d need a new post to point out how stupid and clueless he sounds for even suggesting that.

Honorable mention number two is Texas state Rep Dan Flynn (R) who has filed an unconstitutional bill to create a 'Joint Legislative Committee On Nullification'

Um dude, you lost the Civil War.  Get over it.   But this is the crazy you unleashed when those of you who didn't vote and were able to chose not to do so.

Honorable mention number three is incoming Texas state Rep Molly White (R) who had two abortions,but is hypocritically going to push in this upcoming session to restrict other Texas women's access to the procedures she's had.

Honorable mention number four is soon to be ex-Ferguson killer cop Darren Wilson for a too long list of stupid comments.

Honorable mention number five is every fool who trampled or fought with someone during the after Thanksgiving sales.   It ain't that serious people.

Honorable mention number six is Julius Hatfield, the Southeast Bullitt County fire chief in Bullitt County, KY just south of Louisville.   Bullitt County is where many of the bigots ran when Louisville got 'too ethnic' for them    He was recorded by a Bullitt County sheriff's deputy's body camera after an accident on I-65 in September that involved a white motorist and a Black family from Ohio as saying 'We ain't taking no n*****s".

His department is under investigation for misappropriation of funds by the  state of Kentucky, so he may get what's coming to him anyway.


This week's Shut Up Fool Award is to St Louis County DA Bob McCullouch for not doing his job in indicting Darren Wilson, and then blaming everyone except the person in the mirror during his Monday press conference for his doing everything possible so that a Wilson indictment for the murder by po-po  of Mike Brown wouldn't happen.

Your actions in this case are why African-Americans continue to have little faith in the criminal justice system, especially on cases like this.

It's also why Ferguson experienced more rioting within hours after your announcement of the non-indictment

Just shut up racist fool and refrain from even saying anything else again about this case.

Happy Thanksgiving 2014!

Happy Thanksgiving Day TransGriot readers!

Turkey Day 2014 has turned out to be a little different than I expected it to be.   In addition to now living in a new place, I moved into it just last Monday.  

I'm also now looking at the stress inducing prospect of having to break bread with the two transphobic relatives who caused the drama in the first place.

Well, I'm planning on breaking bread elsewhere on Turkey Day because the crap they put me through is still too raw emotionally for me to be able to sit across the table from them. 

But for those of you in non-stressful family situations, be it with chosen or blood family, hope you are having a wonderful holiday full of good grub while surrounded by good people. 

Despite how it happened, I am thankful today for the roof over my head and the local, national and international help that made it a reality.  I'm thankful for relatively good health, my friends and supportive family, and all those people that I've met during this amazing year.

Happy Thanksgiving people!

TransGriot 2014 NFL Picks Week 13

Today is Thanksgiving Day and the start of Turkey Day weekend for those of us in the USA.

You TransGriot Canadian readers got your Turkey Day grub on last month.

So we get to do so by eating mass quantities of food and checking out NFL football on the television.       

Well, if I had a TV, I would.  But that's another story.   One of the drawbacks of moving just before a holiday.   But then again I'll be able to get one on sale Friday.

And it's probably a good thing I didn't have a TV last Sunday, otherwise I may have thrown stuff at it in reaction to another frustrating Texans loss.

Anyway, had another amazing week of picking NFL games, but definitely didn't see Oakland finally winning one against all peeps, the Kansas City Chiefs.    But unfortunately Mike had an even better 13-2 one than my 11-4  and I'm running out of time to catch him.

Well, Week 13 is now here and everybody's playing games for the rest of the season.   16 games to pick, mine's will be in underlined bold print.   

Week 12 Results

TransGriot    11-4
Eli                 8-7
Mike             13-2

2014 NFL Season Record

TransGriot     112-63-1
Eli                   107-68-1
Mike              121-54-1

NFL Week 13

Thanksgiving Day Games
Detroit  over Chicago
Philadelphia over Dallas
Seattle over San Francisco

Sunday Early Games
Indianapolis over Washington
Houston over Tennessee
Cleveland over Buffalo
San Diego over Baltimore
NY Giants over Jacksonville
Cincinnati over Tampa Bay
St Louis over Oakland
Pittsburgh over New Orleans
Carolina over Minnesota

Sunday Afternoon Games
Arizona over Atlanta
New England over Green Bay

Sunday Night Game
Denver over Kansas City

Monday Night Game
Miami over NY Jets

All They Needed To Do To Keep Ferguson From Burning...

Was indict Darren Wilson.

But because whiteness and white supremacy was at work in this whole sorry affair, they didn't, and now you have another series of protests and riots breaking out in the city of Ferguson and elsewhere around the country

But it was clear that the fix was in when a biased prosecutor with a history of not  indicting police officers involved in shooting of civilians did everything possible to ensure that justice was not done in this case.  

And meanwhile, another African-American family is burying their son who was taken away from them by a racist cop, and then have to watch as FOX Noise and the rest of the media demonize their child.   And you wonder why I and a lot of other African-Americans today are singing along to NWA's lyrics today.

Yes, the POTUS has spoken and appealed for dialogue.   The Department of Justice is now investigating.  But we're tired of talking about our kids dying at the hands of white po-po's, and seeing vigilantes and those offices walking the streets with shyt-eating grins on their faces after they get acquitted by grand juries or juries more inclined to nullify than indict and punish their fellow white peeps.  .

Yeah right, the justice system worked.   But tell that BS to the parent who lost their child at your hands and you show absolutely no remorse for it. 

As Dr, King once said, "A riot is the language of the unheard."  Can you hear us now?

There have been protests in other cities including Houston over the non-indictment, but what we need to happen right now is the police departments of this country to stop treating African-Americans as live fire targets, and stop hiring bigots and giving them badges to patrol our neighborhoods.

First Annual Transgender Outreach Service At The POD

The Progressive Open Door Christian Center during this TDOR 2014  season has really stepped up under the leadership of Deaconess Dee Dee Watters its advocacy for the trans community of Houston.

Dee Dee was one of the peeps that helped push for the passage of the HERO, and the POD and Pastor Freedom Gulley was one of the progressive congregations and ministers speaking in favor of the passage of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

In addition to hosting a well attended Wednesday TDOR service for the second consecutive year, it also hosted  it's first annual Transgender Outreach Service that featured the Rev. Carmarion Anderson and Rev. Raymond Walker III.

I was happy to be there in attendance for yesterday's  service along with other members of the local trans community and our allies, and hope it grows next year.

In addition, at this Transgender Outreach Service that featured the trans reverends speaking and the trans deacon and deaconess of the POD, a resolution  was read at the service that not only declared the POD as a safe worship space for the Houston trans community, they committed their church to being an inclusive and outspoken advocate for the Houston trans community and the trans human rights movement and deplored the acts of anti-trans violence aimed at us.. 

It also committed the POD to having this trans outreach service every year at this time.  I will post the language to the declaration when I receive it so you can do the same for your faith community.

But it is nice to know that at least one Black church in the Houston metro area has stepped up to say boldly that trans people are children of God who are part of our kente cloth community.

The POD in its message of radical inclusiveness is also boldly proclaiming they will have no problem saying it to their fellow Christians who seriously need to hear that message.

Because like many of us in the Houston trans community, I'm tired of the current status quo of either trans hate speech or silence from the pulpit on trans human rights issues that far too many congregations get from their pastors these days.

Houston Trans Woman Attacked, And I'm Pissed About It

Because of the anti-trans hate speech coming from the kneegrow hate ministers of the Baptist Minsters Association of Houston and Vicinity in relation to the HERO passage battle, and it being greeted with silence from other local Black ministers and Black media outlets not called TransGriot, I was beginning to wonder when it would result in Houston area transpeople being attacked or God forbid, killed because of it.

Unfortunately, I got my answer Thursday.

According to an About magazine article, a  gang of seven people attacked Thailand Warr, who is also known as the popular Houston based female illusionist DeyJzah Opulent Mirage,  in the lobby of her Southwest Houston high-rise condo complex as she was preparing to get into a waiting cab for a performance at the Houston Improv.

She was confronted by a group of five Black men and two Black women, all in their late teens to early twenties, who she said smelled of marijuana.   She sustained injuries to her head, upper body and breasts, along with scratches across her chest when they tried to expose her breasts.

I'm attempting to get in contact with Ms. Warr and find out how she's doing along with the rest of the Houston area TBLG community.  If there are any efforts organized that need some additional love from y'all locally and nationall, I'll let you know ASAP.

But right now I'm going to focus the rest of this post on the kneegrow ministers that have been priming the pump for anti-trans violence to erupt with their hate speech as many Houston Black church leaders, our leading organizations like the local NAACP and Urban League, and media outlets like KCOH-AM and KMJQ-FM among others say nothing to condemn the sellout pastors..

Well, if y''all won't say anything, Moni will.

I and the Houston Black transgender community, in a year in which we lost 11 trans people of color in the USA, and with ten of them being African-American, are beyond sick and tired of the cricket chirping silence coming from the Houston Black church about these murders and assaults on trans people when y'all always have a fracking opinion about other crap as demonstrated in the HERO battle you know nothing about

And the fact this attack happened to Ms Warr on November 20, the day we memorialize our lost sisters, wasn't lost on me or anyone else in the trans community and our allies.

What angers me still further is because of your hatred, (yes, hatred) of transgender, gay and lesbian individuals, you real life Uncle Ruckuses have entered into an unholy alliance with Dave Welch and his conservative Republican friends to attempt to kill a much needed human rights ordinance we have NEVER had for our city. 

The attack on Ms Warr is a prime example of exactly why we need the HERO to be implemented without further delay.

And I have nothing but contempt for you for doing so and allowing yourselves to be the useful fools fronting this effort to kill HERO.

Thailand Warr is one of the few anti-trans assaults we are aware of.   How many more have transpired since you started your rhetorical attack on the Houston trans community that we are not privy to and the victims have declined to report them?

Yes, I'm grateful that Ms Warr survived the attack and I pray for her speedy recovery.  I hope the ignorant wastes of DNA who did this face justice.  But I blame the Baptist Ministers Assn. of Houston and Vicinity for sowing the anti-trans seeds at the behest of their massas in the white conservative led Pastor's Council that have now borne poisonous fruit in Ms Warr's life.

The next trans person that gets attacked by a gang of people inside Beltway 8 may not be so fortunate.

Where you at Houston Black church?    Where are your voices of condemnation for this attack Houston NAACP and Houston Urban League for starters?   Where are you Houston Black Area Democrats?  

And where are you Majic 102 and KCOH-AM?   Both of your stations can provide platforms for the sellout ministers and HERO opponents to speak and demonize the Houston African-American trans community, but you can't (or won't) provide a platform for us to rebut the scurrilous and demonstrably false charges aimed at us?

I' eagerly await the answers to those questions along with our allies

Reclaiming My Inner Diva Again

Yesterday afternoon I was waiting from my bus downtown to take me back to my new crib in the Heights.   

One of the things I have been battling in addition to my transphobic aunt and uncle is the misgendering I endured while I was there for the last four years. 

It had a much deeper effect on me that I expected    I'd stopped getting my nails done (and some of that was for fiscal reasons) and was having more of those unpretty episodes than I cared to admit.

Lately I wasn't feeling like the fly Black woman of trans experience  I've been evolving into for the last 20 years, and that was bothering me as well.

While I was waiting for the bus, I noted this fly sister with a cinnamon brown skin tone strutting north up Travis St in her nice dress, black patent pumps with bare legs, and perfect makeup and nails.

I'm always on the lookout for sistahs who got it going on in terms of their feminine presentation to see what lessons I can learn and implement in my own routine.  While checking her out noticed that she had the white uneven skin patches around her feet and the back parts of her shapely legs of vitiligo.

She held her head high and kept strutting up that sidewalk as if she was the finest thing walking in Downtown Houston that particular moment, and frankly, girlfriend had curves to go with it. 

She did teach me a lesson that I took home that afternoon   Some of us trans women get so beat down with all the negativity we experience, it sometimes causes us to question our hard won femininity and try to tone it down to please others. 

The only person I have to please is myself.    Now that I'm taking my first steps back to being on my own, I'm going to do a better job of rocking my inner diva.  

Not just for me, but hey, I have competition.   My little sisters ain't playing, they are bringing their A+ beauty games to the transfeminine party, and I have younglings that look up to me as a role model now.

Some of my trans sisters in my age group are no slouches either when it comes to projecting the types of women they want to present to the world either.

So yeah, gotta role model what aging gracefully looks like.    So where's the nearest nail shop to my new place?

Shut Up Fool Awards-TDOR Weekend 2014 Edition

This weekend all over the planet our trans community and our allies are pausing to remember our trans brothers and trans sisters around the world who have lost their lives due to anti-transgender violence.

These Transgender Day Of Remembrance events have be held around the world around the November 20 date of  TDOR and continue through Sunday in many locales including Houston.

The HTUC organized TDOR will take place tomorrow at the AD Bruce Religion Center on the University of Houston campus starting at 6:30 PM, and there will be a Transgender Outreach Service Sunday featuring Rev Carmarion Anderson at Progressive Open Door Christian Center on the TSU campus. 

Whether it's TDOR or whatever other event, my usual Friday TransGriot business of calling out fools happens.   So let's get to it.

Special Drop Dead Fools award for all the peeps who murdered my trans sisters around the world who so far have eluded prosecution for it or got a slap on the legal wrist. 

May you rot in hell for what you've done, and may it be sooner rather than later.

Honorable mention number one goes to the as yet still unidentified Norfolk, VA school official who let loose a racist tweet that called young Black men a 'nightmare' for fathers of young white women.

It led to a Monday walkout of Black students at Booker T Washington HS. 

I think you got it twisted.  It is white men of who are a nightmare for young Black men.   As the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael brown.


Honorable mention number two is Don Lemon.   He regurgitated more of his bitter CNN Lemon-aid when he made a victim blaming comment to a woman who has accused Bill Cosby of rape



Honorable mention number three is Kentucky's junior senator Rand Paul, who claimed that no one in Congress has done more for minority and ethnic rights than he has.

After I laugh my ass off at the incredible ignorance of that statement, may I point out Senator Paul, that you are not even close to being Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) who too a beatdown from the Alabama State Gestapo Police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge for voting rights and was a Freedom Rider. 

So have several seats in the House and Senate chambers and never part your lips to say something that stupid again.

Honorable mention number four is one in which we go to the Houston area for and roast Kelley's Country Cooking.   Instead of standing up for 19 year old Blake Butler after a homophobic customer wrote on their receipt, “Don’t want to listen to a f*ggot through my whole meal,” the restaurant's manager instead APOLOGIZED to the homophobe. 

WTF?  Do fries go with that homophobia?   

Another sterling example of why HERO is necessary.

This week's Shut Up Fool Winner is incoming Nevada Speaker of the House Ira Hansen

Remember when I urged peeps to run, not walk to the polls and many of you sat your asses at home anyway?  

Well, this is what your lack of attention to your civic duty got elected in Nevada.   A longtime unrepentant racist who has a long history of homophobic, racist and sexist statements will now that the GOP has control of the House.has the political power to mess with the lives of many Nevadans he doesn't like.

Hansen let loose with this latest racist statement that Democrats 'have a master-slave relationship with simple minded darkies'

Again with the plantation references.   And you wonder why I call the Republican Party the political arm of whiteness and white supremacy.   They keep proving it every day.

Ira Hansen, shut up racist fool!

Black Trans Women Have 'Privileges Over A Woman?' LMAO

I was sent by one of my readers this copy of one of the letters to the editor section of ESSENCE.  She asked my thoughts about Betty Buccaneer's negative comments about the recent cover shoot in which Laverne Cox was one of the four gorgeous women on it along with Alfre Woodard, Nicole Beharie, and Danai Gurira.

First, here's that TERF's comments before I properly eviscerate them

I found Laverne Cox's image on the cover disrespectful to Black women   I support trans women in their quest for civil rights but I do not support them occupying women's spaces. There are serious inequalities in this country that come with being female. I cannot and will not accept someone who was born a man having privileges over a woman.

Moni laughs,  cracks knuckles, assumes optimum typing position.

First up, I called Ms. Buccaneer a TERF because this so reeks of trans-hating TERF feminazi crap that even Stevie Wonder can see it . 

Y'all really need to get some more creative assumed names, or better yet, attach your real names to your transphobic crap and own it.

|Assuming you even are a Black woman, and that's highly unlikely since the only people I see front and center as leaders in the TERF movement are white, the Black women cis and trans I know have applauded the ESSENCE cover and I have yet to see any prominent African American women expressing the view that you have.

Frankly, I applaud Ms. Cox for making history once again and being on that ESSENCE cover with three accomplished women.   It sends the message that trans women are women, and Black trans women are part of the kente cloth fabric of the African-American community.  

You don't like that, too damned bad bad.

What, you jealous because the fabulous Ms Cox  was on the cover of TIME, now is on the cover of ESSENCE and you'll never will be?  And at the rate Laverne is piling up honors this year, probably won't be the last time she's honored with an ESSENCE cover.

FYI to you Ms. Buccaneer (or whatever your REAL name is), Laverne is only the first OUT trans woman who has appeared on the cover of ESSENCE.    Tracy Africa Norman appeared on five ESSENCE covers back in the 80's    

So keep on hatin', transhater.

As for your fake support of trans rights you claimed in the short letter.  You either support trans rights or you don't without equivocation.

We have no room in our international trans human rights struggle for lukewarm, squishy alleged 'allies' because we have serious issues that we need to tackle and solve.

What are those issues?   A 26% unemployment rate, off the charts anti-trans murders and violence aimed at us, and ignorant comment like yours and from sellout kneegrow ministers that help fuel that anti-trans violence. 

You're either ride or die with us human rights wise as fellow African-Americans or you aren't. 

'Serious inequalities with being female'?   Tell me and Black women cis and trans something we don't know already.   Try walking in out Black female pumps, Miss Thang.   You couldn't handle ten seconds of it without crying white women's tears and running to clutch those pearls.

And there you go again TERF with that 'male privilege' thang.   That died the nanosecond we started undergoing HRT and we morphed into our female bodies.    So you can stop telling that lie, too. 

Laverne, like all trans women, was born as an infant.   You become and grow into the roles of a man or a woman, and Laverne is one fabulous looking sister any cis or trans woman with common sense would enjoy counting as one of her friends.  

Thank you for playing, and we have lovely parting gifts for you.  


TransGriot Note: TERF=Trans Exterminationalist (or/Exclusionary) Radical Feminist